Sacerdotal Scribbling from the Edge of a Dying Culture

Tag Archives: Syria

I write this as I watch the Holy Father’s vigil of prayer for peace and after making a long and rather hot pilgrimage around the city of Siena fasting and praying in union with the intentions of His Holiness, Francis, Vicar of Christ, father of princes and kings.

Certainly this was a great thing requested by Pope Francis and it seems to have moved many around the world. We will see what fruit is born according to the grace of God and the will of the kings of this world. Perhaps all out war and the mindless death and destruction that comes with it will be avoided.

However, I think the Holy Father has something more than simply avoiding the bombing of Syria. His words seem to point to that, the six-point plan for peace released by the Holy See seems to point to that and our Lord Jesus seems to point to that.

For Jesus said, “blessed are the peacemakers” not “blessed are the peace talkers.”

Perhaps the death that is all-out war will be avoided. Bloodshed will not. In Syria, in Egypt, in Iraq, in Lebanon and multiple other places in the world, blood will still be shed. Christians in those lands have been, and will continue to be, marginalized, intimidated, beaten, tortured, raped and killed. Oddly enough, this has only increased since the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ and the rise of purported democracy in those lands.

So, if there is no air-strike on Syria, will there be peace? Hardly.

His Holiness Pope Paul VI famously said at the United Nations, ‘no more war, never again war.’ Pope Francis repeated it tonight in his feverino at the Vigil. It is a moving phrase, it has become a famous phrase. It is also a false hope.

“There will be wars and rumors of wars, but that will not be the end.” These of words of the God-man Jesus Christ, recorded in the Gospel according to St. Matthew. ‘There will be wars’ says Our Lord. No Christian can believe that there will never again be war. I know that Pope Paul VI was speaking to a crowd of many people who were non-belivers and it was the right message to deliver to the kings of the earth who will always be ready to kill for power and wealth.

But it is not a phrase for Christians. For Christians is: blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, those who mourn, the pure of heart, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who are rejoice in being persecuted because of the name of Jesus.

The West is falling. All the haughty and decadent princes of the U.N., the G-20 or whatever other incarnation they take, are lesser sons of greater fathers who inherited the greatest civilization ever to exist and turned into a plaything for greed, lust and envy. Neither they nor their subjects rally to be meek or to mourn. Oh, they love, ‘no more war’ but will never attain it because they do not, they cannot understand true peace as they sit on piles of so much gold like a million Smaug’s, thinking the wasteland around them is peace and and ignorant that their greed has led no a fatal weakness

And what about us? What about me? When was the last time I rejoiced in persecution? When did I last make peace? And with whom? Perhaps we too have been fools, believing in the fools gold of no more war and thus missing the pathway to making peace because we simply want to ask for peace. Thus, the selfish decadence of the black West grows apace even as it consumes itself in financial ruin and demographic suicide. “You say, ‘peace, peace’ but there is no peace.”

Why is it so hard not find a way to help persecuted Christians? St. Paul writes, ‘do good to all, especially those in the household of faith.’ The Christians in Syria, Egypt, Palestine, etc. they are other ones who can bring peace to those places not the vain masters of the West. They can thirst for justice, they can mourn, they can forgive, they can serve, they can rejoice in persecution in those places. They can celebrate the Mass and bring Jesus Christ into that place.

What is the way to peace? Jesus.

What did He ask us to do? “Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” How shall we go and teach? “Do this in memory of me.” “Seek you first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.” “The Son of man came to serve not to be served.” “I was hungry and you gave me to eat, thirsty and you gave me to drink, naked and you clothed me, lonely and imprisoned and you visited me.”

“I am the way, the truth and the life.” The most moving thing of the night was seeing the Pope kneeling before the Jesus. There are many things to do but here is where it starts. Starts, not finished, there is much to do. But if it doesn’t start here is will always fail.

‘But what if people don’t want to start here, what if they do not, cannot, believe in Jesus?’ Then there will be no peace of any sort whatever. Indeed, the same Jesus said, “you will be hated by all on account of my Name.” And, “Do you think I have come to bring peace? No I tell you, not peace but the sword. From now on a house will be set, two against three and three agains two.”

Do you want world peace? You will never have it and worse, you are serving a false god.

Do you want every soul to serve Jesus Christ? That can happen, at the end of all things, that will happen. This, and this alone, will give the human heart peace.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called the children of God.”